One Choice
by Rosmarinus
Summary: One choice, no matter how simple, affects lives in a continuing web. Kate reviews her choices.


_Disclaimer: No one from NCIS or CSI: Miami belongs to me and I make no claims to any of the characters mentioned. Please keep in mind that I am not worth suing. Also, I am officially in denial as to the ending of **Twilight** and Tim's insistence in remaining dead._

_Spoiler: **Twilight**_

_Setting: Immediately following **Twilight**._

"Hey."

Kate looked up to see a man walking towards her. He slouched a bit and unbuttoned shirt cuffs surrounded his wrists; his hands were jammed into the pockets of his black jeans. He nodded at her and then at her friends, who stood there in shock.

"What the hell?"

It was the first thing that came to Kate's mind; it was the sum of her questions.

"Look, Agent Todd, you need to come with me," the man told her. He was about her age, with dark eyes and hair. He had a three-day shadow for a beard, something she would have razzed Tony about.

_Tony_. Tony just stood there, stunned, feeling numbly at his face.

"Do I have a choice?" Kate asked the man. He shrugged.

"We all have choices," he told her. "Even here. But I think you'd like to know what's going on first, before you go making any of those choices."

With a glance at Gibbs, his face twisted with a fury she had never seen, Kate took a deep breath. The man extended one of his hands and smiled slightly at her.

She took his hand.

_OC_

"What the _hell_!" Kate stared, opened mouth at her surroundings. In the space of time that she took man's hand and stepped forward, they had moved from the rooftop to a beach. She stumbled in her surprise and the man easily caught her.

"No, not hell," he told her. "Not quite heaven, either, though."

He guided her to a beach blanket not far from the water. The day was bright, but there was no sun in the sky. Waves lapped at the sand and a few navigator birds flew over head.

"Alright," Kate said, steadying herself as she sat. "Who are you and where are we? What just happened?"

The man looked out across the water. "Right," he said. "My name is Tim. I'm a CSI from Miami. Or, I was." He glanced from the water to her. "I was shot in September. Made a huge mess of things for my friends."

Kate stared, fascinated. "What are you telling me?"

Tim shrugged. "I should have cleaned my gun. Just never seemed to get to it."

Kate rolled her eyes and stood up. "You know, I have work to do. This fever dream can end at any moment, okay? God, I must have gotten the plague from Tony after all."

Tim looked up at her. "Sit down, Kate. There isn't anywhere for you to go. Not yet." He waited for her to sit back on the blanket, hugging her knees to her chest. "It's not easy, I know. But you were shot, too."

Kate rubbed at her forehead. "Tell me this is a fever dream."

Tim leaned back on the blanket, staring up in the sunless sky. "I can't. It's not."

"I'm dead?" she asked softly.

He nodded.

Kate began to cry. Tim moved to take her in his arms, but she roughly shoved him away. So he waited for her to cry herself out.

_OC_

It was a long time before she was quiet and calm again. The light hadn't waned nor had the waves advanced on the shore. Time hung, suspended, in that place. Tim patiently watched over the ocean. Kate scrubbed at her face with her hand finally. She lay back on the blanket and Tim watched as she fell asleep.

She woke to Tim's hand on her shoulder. "Kate," he said gently, "there's something you need to see."

Kate rolled over and accepted his support as she sat up. There were flashes of color out at the horizon. She watched the flashes as they became more vivid, moving closer to the shore. Soon, they became pictures, frozen in time. A baby in her father's arms. A little girl with brown hair, squealing as she ran from one of her brothers. A middle school student, head bent over her math homework. A teenager, talking the car keys from a wobbly friend. A young woman, breaking up with a man who wanted to take her away with him.

Kate saw herself the day she interviewed for the Secret Service. Her eyes shining brightly, her face eager, her solemn promised to protect the life of the president.

"What is this?" she asked, turning to Tim. "Is this a joke?"

He rubbed his jaw. "No, Kate. It's every choice you made in your life that brought you to that moment on the roof."

An image of Kate agreeing to work with Gibbs aboard Air Force One appeared in the sky, followed by her first day at NCIS.

Kate stood up. "I don't want to see this," she said angrily. "Take me away from here. Take me home. Or wherever."

Tim stood with her, as the image of her hesitation in killing Ari appeared and disappeared in the sky.

"I can't," he told her. "I wish I could. But you need to see this. You want to make a choice? You need to know what your choices are."

Kate faced him, eyes flashing. "Did you have to do this?" she demanded.

"Yeah, I did." Tim looked at the next image from Kate's life, agreeing to the director's request to protect Gibbs whether he liked it or not. "Look, we all make choices. Some of us get to make them differently."

Kate studied him for a long moment. She refused to turn back to the water. She did not want to see what her choices brought her.

"I don't understand," she said at last.

Tim pointed across the water, where the pictures had stilled. "If we go across there, we go to Valhalla – well, it's sort of like Valhalla. It's the corner of Heaven for warriors and defenders. You have a spot there for you. My spot is back across the sand, where those who were voices for the voiceless dwell. But it's all really the same place." He watched as Kate's expression became more confused. "Anyway, we get one chance to make one choice differently. And those choices affect our lives and the lives of those around us and the lives of every person they touch. It's a never-ending web."

"One choice?" Kate asked.

"One choice," Time told her. "One thing differently."

Kate crossed her arms, glaring at Tim. "So why didn't you choice to clean your gun?"

Tim stared out at the water and the image from his life, of agreeing to go with Horatio to the jewelry store appeared. Kate watched, as the men climbed out of the Hummer and walked across the street, Horatio commenting on the motorcycle, saying Tim might someday want something with doors.

"There'll be time for that," Tim said above the water.

The men entered the store. Kate watched as an armed man moved on the floor and Tim's hand went to his gun. Horatio noticed and pulled his own gun.

Tim fired twice at the armed man. As he fell, his gun clattered from his hands, hitting the floor and discharging twice. One bullet struck Tim in the chest, the other tore through Horatio's abdomen.

Kate watched, horrified, as both men fell. The clerks of the shop ran, leaving them in a spreading pool of blood.

"One choice," Tim said. "Horatio bled to death before help got there. I was going to be dead either way and the little boy we were searching for would have drowned. So, I made a choice: I chose not to clean my gun."

"Not to clean your gun," Kate echoed.

Tim shrugged again. "It was easy enough. It failed to fire and clicked. The guy on the floor heard the click and turned on me. Horatio never got hit by the ricochet, he found the kid and they both lived. I was going to be dead either way."

Kate watched the new scene play across the ocean, watched Tim die as Horatio leaned above him.

_OC_

Kate stood by the water, watching as her life continued to play back and forth. Tim had told her to take all the time she needed, to play out all the possibilities she could see. Saw the possibility of killing Ari when she could, and watched as twenty people died half way around the world because he wasn't there to prevent it. Saw the possibility of not joining the Secret Service and the murder of the first daughter because she hadn't been there to prevent it. Saw the possibility of marrying the young man rather than sending him away – and the daughter she would have held in her arms.

"How do you choose?" she asked Tim.

"What is in your heart?" he asked her.

_OC_

"Gun!" Kate shouted, jumping in front of Gibbs. The impact of the bullet colliding with her protective vest threw Kate from her feet. Gibbs fired once and the man was dead. He leaned down to help her up and moved to open her vest.

"Not here," she hissed, eyes, darting across the rooftops. Her Secret Service training was still in command and she pulled Gibbs down to the roof. "We're still exposed. DiNozzo!" she shouted. "Keep your head down!"

Kate scrambled to her feet, quickly pulling Gibbs into the stairwell. Tony was immediately behind them.

"Oh man," he gasped as a sniper bullet struck against the stone, just missing Kate. She grabbed his hand and pulled him into the stairwell. "That was close!"

"You know better than to stand out in the open with a hostile still out there!" she snapped at the both of them.

For a moment, Kate's vision blurred and she was certain she heard voices.

"One choice," Tim said. "Always follow your heart."

Gibbs fixed his eyes on her in the dim light. "You okay, Kate?" he demanded.

Kate gulped, the nausea passing. "Yes," she told him. "Just – just some deja vu."

Gibbs nodded. "Good, 'cause that bastard is still out there."


End file.
